Online advertising involves the presentation of display advertisements (e.g., banner ads, images, text, and/or hyperlinks of various shapes and sizes) embedded into web pages that are rendered and displayed to Internet users. For example, when an Internet user enters a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the address bar of a browser application and directs the browser application to request the web page corresponding with the URL, the web page that is rendered and displayed to the user may include one or more display advertisements. Although the goal of displaying advertisements may vary from one ad campaign to the next, many ad campaigns are planned with the objective of driving traffic to a website of the advertiser. For example, the owners of a small online business having a web-based retail store for selling tennis equipment (e.g., tennis racquets, balls, clothes and shoes) may desire to embed display advertisements in the web pages of a web-based tennis magazine or blog, with the hope that the readers of the tennis magazine or blog will view and select the ads for the online tennis store, and ultimately conclude a transaction with the web-based tennis store. Similarly, the content publisher (e.g., the operator of the web-based tennis magazine or blog) may desire to generate revenue by offering to advertisers ad space on web pages for the display of advertisements.
There are a variety of existing methods and mechanisms by which content publishers can make their ad spaces available to advertisers for purchasing, and by which advertisers can find and purchase the ad spaces of content publishers. One way is through direct negotiation. For instance, an advertiser may directly approach a content publisher with a request to purchase ad space in that content publisher's web pages. Another way that a content publisher may offer ad space for sale is through an ad network or ad exchange. Ad networks and ad exchanges are companies that connect content publishers with advertisers who desire to have ads embedded in the content of other content publishers. Ad networks and ad exchanges operate in a variety of different ways. For instance, some are highly automated such that both the content publisher and advertiser can conclude transactions via web-based interfaces, without additional personal interaction. Some ad networks are transparent, providing the advertiser with significant details about the content of the web pages in which the advertiser's ads are to be embedded. Other ad networks are referred to as “blind” networks because the advertisers relinquish control over the selection process that determines the content (e.g., web pages) in which their advertisements will be displayed.
One problem that content publishers face with existing methods and mechanisms that are used to offer ad spaces to advertisers is the limited audience of potential advertisers that can be reached through any particular ad network or ad exchange. For example, some advertisers may work with only one ad network. Therefore, unless a content publisher is working with that particular ad network, the content publisher will not have access to those advertisers. Consequently, in addition to directly negotiating with one or more advertisers, a content publisher may be required to utilize multiple ad networks and/or ad exchanges to find the advertisers that are willing to purchase the content publisher's inventory of ad spaces. This will require that the content publisher establish several user accounts, and become familiar with the various interfaces, policies and procedures of the several ad networks and/or ad exchanges that the content publisher utilizes. Furthermore, the content publisher will be required to retrieve and analyze performance reports—likely in varying formats—for each ad network and/or ad exchange with which the content publisher is using.
Another problem that content publishers frequently encounter is finding the optimum price at which to offer ad spaces to advertisers. For instance, when a content publisher is using a single ad network, the advertisers participating in that ad network may not accurately represent the overall market (specifically, the demand in the broader market) for the offered ad space. Therefore, if a content publisher sets the price for an ad space too low, the content publisher will not realize the fair market value of the ad space. Even in scenarios where the ad network or ad exchange uses an auction system, if the publisher's reserve price is set too low, the limited number of advertisers in any given ad network or ad exchange are not likely to bid the price up to the fair market value, and thus the content publisher is not likely to realize the fair market value of the ad spaces. Consequently, content publishers are left with the burden of tinkering with the price at which their ad spaces are being offered on multiple ad networks and/or ad exchanges, in an effort to find the optimal price. This of course is not an easy task, as the optimal price is likely to change over time, as demand changes and economic conditions change.